59Co NMR study of NdCo 2, GdCo 2, TbCo 2 and HoCo 2

Abstract

We have observed the 59Co spectra of the Laves phase Co compounds with Nd, Gd, Tb and Ho. We observe a spectrum consisting of a pair of lines for Nd, Tb and Ho compounds, because the Co sites are magnetically inequivalent in the presence of dipolar or pseudodipolar fields. For the heavy rare earth compounds, the magnitude of this splitting is comparable to the dipolar splitting produced by the neighboring spins, but for Nd it is much larger. The Nd compound is also anomalous in that the average hyperfine field is only 37.2 kOe while for the 3 heavy rare earth compounds it is about 60 kOe. The magnitude of the hyperfine field is discussed in terms of a simple model relating it to the cobalt moment and the rare earth spin.